Interplay's Fallout MMO confirmed

On its new website, back-from-the-dead publisher Interplay has as good as confirmed that it has begun development on a Fallout MMO.

The company said last year that it was seeking funding for the project.

Now, the company's site has announced the opening of a new studio in Orange County, California dedicated to development of its "new MMO, code-named Project V13, headed by original creators of Fallout".

The graphical style of the logo, and the V13 code - most likely short for "Vault 13" - are other strong hints that this project is the massively multiplayer Fallout game.

Interplay's site also carries the news that Chris Taylor, a game designer on the original Fallout at the company, has been hired to take the lead system designer role on Project V13 at the Irvine offices (just down the road from Blizzard, then).

When it was suffering financial troubles, Interplay sold the Fallout franchise to Bethesda (whose Fallout 3 is released this year), but retained the rights to an online Fallout game for itself.

It seems that funding has been found, and work begun in earnest on the project.